‘A double-engine govt. will de-risk people from political conflicts that hurt their development’: Rajeev Chandrasekhar

BJP had a major breakthrough when it won the Thiruvananthapuram corporation in the local body elections in 2025. But at the same time, the party only had a total vote share of 14.76% across Kerala, compared with nearly 20% in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Are you a bit worried ahead of the Assembly election?

Local body elections are typically not fought along party lines. For us, the local body polls marked a big jump forward. We fielded almost 22,000 candidates, much more than before. The vote share may be at variance with the Lok Sabha election. But the seats that we got spanned the entire State. Earlier, we were restricted to certain pockets around Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram or Thrissur.

One of the regions where we had a major loss in votes compared to the Lok Sabha election was Thrissur. That had a lot to do with candidate selection and mistakes in campaign management, due to which we went from 40% in Lok Sabha [polls] to 20% in local body elections in the district. So if you take that one aberration out, we did extremely well.

You have been carrying out an aggressive outreach towards minority communities — both Muslim and Christian. Do you think you can overcome the apprehensions of these communities, whether it be the issues faced by Muslims or the attacks on nuns and churches in some BJP-ruled States?

Thirty years of fake narratives about the BJP have been force-fed to the minorities, that we are communal and we care only about the Hindus. During the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign in Pozhiyoor in Thiruvananthapuram, an old lady told me, “I am ready to support you, but you should tell your people not to burn our churches”. After I became the party president, we have made it a point to go and meet Malayalis across the State to share our developmental vision and reassure them that we will not harm anyone. Regarding incidents in the north, neither I nor the BJP can speak for all 140 crore Indians, or for all Hindus. If there are crazy individuals out there, who take law into their own hands, the laws of those States must be enforced. I have given an assurance that whenever there is a Malayali in trouble, you can count on me.

Most of these attacks are allegedly carried out by the Bajrang Dal and Vishva Hindu Parishad which are part of the larger Sangh Parivar. Do you think their actions are detrimental to the BJP’s chances in Kerala?

I cannot speak for them. In Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand, there are anti-conversion laws being passed even by Congress governments, because they consider that it is a huge threat to the indigenous communities. Congress MPs from Kerala go to Chhattisgarh for photo-ops with nuns, but not a single local Congressman participates. They will not, because of the dynamics there.

The BJP is placing itself as an alternative to the LDF and the UDF. The LDF and the UDF have criticised the BJP-led Union government on disaster relief funds for Kerala, particularly after the 2018 floods or the landslide in Wayanad. Do you think these allegations will affect your prospects?

When a government is not able to deliver, they will find somebody to blame, which is what they are doing against the Centre. They have been unable to prove in the Supreme Court that the Centre has been unfair to the State. When the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) balance shows so much money, on what account can the Centre give more?

But doesn’t the Centre provide special packages usually when such disasters happen in BJP-ruled States?

This is not a piggy bank where anybody can go and borrow money without accountability. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, every rupee has to be properly accounted for. For instance, when there is a disaster in Himachal Pradesh, it will have to give accounts of where its SDRF money is. Only then can it make the claim for additional top-up funds. That the Kerala government is not ready to do.

On that note, what do you think of the concept of ‘double-engine government’ of the BJP at the Centre and the State?

In a federal democracy, if you have a State government which has 24×7 animosity towards the Centre, the people of the State will suffer. Double-engine government means there is an agreement around basic problems that need to be solved. When it is two governments of the same party working together, you have very little room for non-implementation of policies. In some cases, even when the government is not of the ruling party at the Centre, effective cooperation is possible. For instance, it had worked for Naveen Patnaik’s government in Odisha.

But in Odisha too, you ran a campaign for a ‘double-engine government’. So, does it also imply that you will not benefit unless it is a BJP government in the State?

No. Rather the opposite. Double-engine government de-risks the people from any political conflict coming in the way of their development.

The BJP’s major allegation is that the LDF government has failed the State across all sectors. However, the Union government’s own agencies such as the NITI Aayog have given Kerala high rankings in health and education in the past 10 years. The Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) rankings had also improved from 28 to 1. How do you explain this contradiction?

It is not a contradiction at all. The metric of EoDB is not the same as attracting investments or creating jobs. Kerala today has the highest unemployment in India. Isn’t that a statistic that impacts people more? EoDB is a sample survey focused on the businesses already in Kerala, not on those outside looking to invest. So, when there is little business activity in Kerala, you are only sampling what is already here. Similarly, access to education has been high in Kerala. You have to measure the quality of the classrooms, not just the infrastructure. There is no internship, industry linkages or modern labs here, except in a few private colleges.

Recently, you attributed Kerala’s low Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) to youth migration, although IMR is calculated as deaths per 1,000 live births, not total births. The LDF compares the IMR with the several BJP-ruled States, in which IMR and other metrics still remain very high.

I said that there is a Marxist tendency to cherry-pick certain statistics and market it as an achievement. Low IMR is not a good thing, but if you make that alone the point and don’t discuss everything around it, then you are trying to fool people. You must also speak about youth migration and low birth rates.

Comparisons with Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are false as these are States have come out of the Congress’s grip in recent years. They have entered mainstream development only recently. Kerala has been doing development for the past 60 years, from the days of E.M.S. [Namboodiripad], Achutha Menon and Karunakaran. South India started its social and economic development cycle way ahead of the north.

Both the LDF and the UDF are accusing each other of having a deal with the BJP. How do you view these allegations? Whom do you consider to be the main opponent among the two?

At one level, it is laughable. I must also thank them for accepting that the BJP is the ‘A-team’ as both of them accuse each other of being the ‘B-team’ of the BJP. It is bizarre for two parties who are in a formal political alliance in every other State to be alleging this. In Manjeswaram, the SDPI [Social Democratic Party of India] withdrew its candidate at the Congress’s request. The Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have a deal with each other as well as the SDPI and Jamaat-e-Islami. The deal allegation is a desperate attempt to consolidate the Muslim vote.